Alberto Contador is the Greatest
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ben@31 wrote:FocusZing wrote:
http://www.velonews.com/2017/07/tour-de ... ink_443790“Alberto was animating me to go full-gas,” Landa said. “He told me, ‘Let’s do something big! Let’s pull until we’re dead.’"
Panache!
In that photograph, interesting bidon he's got on the seat tube ???
Was full of food0 -
It's a small step from that to going full triathlete and having a top tube bag! Cut off water bottles should be for storing spare tubes and puncture kit.0
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The cap just fell off on his last crash.
Okay okay, I'll let myself out.
PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
It's full of steak mince
He's also wearing shoes that just have velcro. Amateur; doesn't he know that laces is where it's at?0 -
ben@31 wrote:FocusZing wrote:
http://www.velonews.com/2017/07/tour-de ... ink_443790“Alberto was animating me to go full-gas,” Landa said. “He told me, ‘Let’s do something big! Let’s pull until we’re dead.’"
Panache!
In that photograph, interesting bidon he's got on the seat tube ???
Nah - that's the battery! In fac, one of the motos had a close look in; it is a sliced off bidon with a couple of gels and a snack bar in it0 -
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Adios Bertie0
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Left it all out there. Without question one of the greats.PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230
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Lifted from his Twitter page and taken just before stage 20.
This has got to be one of the best pics of the year IMO.
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I'm not ashamed to say I punched the air when he won on the Angliru.
One of the greats of his generation, with all that entails0 -
It's funny isn't it comparing the two threads which are running on here at the moment? "How Good Is Chris Froome" and "Alberto Contador is the Greatest". Many people accuse Froome of being boring and emotionless whilst often begrudgingly admitting that he is a great rider with what he has achieved.
Personally, that's the way I feel about Alberto Contador. Not that I would accuse him of being boring mind but I do find his style of attacking and often failing a bit pointess and tedious. He's never really been on my radar as someone I admire and am rooting for when he goes off on one of his lone attacks. I guess it basically comes down to who our heroes are and why.
Contador came to the fore after the Armstrong era of dominance in the Tour de France. I make no apology for supporting Armstrong at the time because I, like many others, was taken in by his performance. Contador stepped into the vacuum after Armstrong and never really inspired me in the same way. It wasn't even the doping scandal with Contador because plenty of champions have doped in the past. All we can hope for now is that the sport is largely clean and is a level playing field.
I can appreciate that many people don't like Froome and the whole Sky dominance thing has a lot to do with that as well. For me he is an inspiration of quiet power and dedication to his objectives.
Contador is undoubtably a truly great champion, he's just not mine.0 -
Here's the thing about comparing the two in recent years. Froome rides like he does because he is leading the race. Contador isn't. When Contador was leading nine Grand Tours he rode like Froome. He used a team to keep a lid on things. He didn't attack. I struggle to think of an example in those nine races of Contador attacking in the leader's jersey.hypster wrote:It's funny isn't it comparing the two threads which are running on here at the moment? "How Good Is Chris Froome" and "Alberto Contador is the Greatest". Many people accuse Froome of being boring and emotionless whilst often begrudgingly admitting that he is a great rider with what he has achieved.
(It's like football - you don't bring on an extra striker when you're winning 2-0)Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95 wrote:
Here's the thing about comparing the two in recent years. Froome rides like he does because he is leading the race. Contador isn't. When Contador was leading nine Grand Tours he rode like Froome. He used a team to keep a lid on things. He didn't attack. I struggle to think of an example in those nine races of Contador attacking in the leader's jersey.hypster wrote:It's funny isn't it comparing the two threads which are running on here at the moment? "How Good Is Chris Froome" and "Alberto Contador is the Greatest". Many people accuse Froome of being boring and emotionless whilst often begrudgingly admitting that he is a great rider with what he has achieved.
(It's like football - you don't bring on an extra striker when you're winning 2-0)
Third week Giro 2015 when he was in Pink. From Wikipedia with the usual caveats:After the rest day, Landa won a second consecutive stage. Contador had suffered a puncture at the foot of the penultimate climb – the Mortirolo – and at one point was nearly a minute behind Landa and Aru. Contador caught Landa and Aru, however, then attacked them. Although Landa was able to follow Contador's attack, Aru was not. On the final climb to Aprica, Landa attacked and won the stage, 38 seconds ahead of Contador. Aru, meanwhile, lost nearly three minutes to Landa. Landa moved up into second place, although he was still over four minutes behind Contador, with Aru now third.[51] Sacha Modolo won his second stage the following day, in a sprint finish, with Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) moving into the lead of the points classification.[52] Philippe Gilbert also won a second stage of the 2015 Giro on stage 18, escaping in a breakaway early in the day and attacking 19 kilometres (12 mi) from the finish to take a solo victory. Contador again increased his lead, however: after Aru and Landa were caught behind a crash, Contador ordered his team to attack. Cyclingnews.com suggested this was revenge for Astana's attack on stage 16. Contador. then attacked alone and, after cooperation with Ryder Hesjedal, gained more than a minute on his rivals. Landa was second, over five minutes behind, with Aru a further 50 seconds back.0 -
But that's not him initiating the action. It's him following attacks from rivals and then counter attacking near the end.dish_dash wrote:RichN95 wrote:
Here's the thing about comparing the two in recent years. Froome rides like he does because he is leading the race. Contador isn't. When Contador was leading nine Grand Tours he rode like Froome. He used a team to keep a lid on things. He didn't attack. I struggle to think of an example in those nine races of Contador attacking in the leader's jersey.hypster wrote:It's funny isn't it comparing the two threads which are running on here at the moment? "How Good Is Chris Froome" and "Alberto Contador is the Greatest". Many people accuse Froome of being boring and emotionless whilst often begrudgingly admitting that he is a great rider with what he has achieved.
(It's like football - you don't bring on an extra striker when you're winning 2-0)
Third week Giro 2015 when he was in Pink. From Wikipedia with the usual caveats:Twitter: @RichN950 -
He counter attacked on the Mortirolo but the Stage 16 one he attacked to p*ss Astana off, mainly for the sheer hell of it.
2009 Tour to Grand Bornand he attacked in Yellow as well. IIRC the Tourmalet in 2010 too0 -
He didn't hang around in the Giro in 2011 as well. On the particularly brutal stage he attacked early and nearly lost his lead by the end.0
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He sat in Schleck's wheel the whole way up the Tourmalet. Putting in an unsuccessful dig near the top isn't an attackTakeTheHighRoad wrote:He counter attacked on the Mortirolo but the Stage 16 one he attacked to p*ss Astana off, mainly for the sheer hell of it.
2009 Tour to Grand Bornand he attacked in Yellow as well. IIRC the Tourmalet in 2010 tooTwitter: @RichN950 -
The problem for me is not Froome - he is quite entertaining - it is more riders like Kelderman and Zakarin. They think they can't win, so they followed wheels for weeks to achieve 3rd and 4th. Great, but they will never know what would have happened if they had tried.0
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TheBigBean wrote:The problem for me is not Froome - he is quite entertaining - it is more riders like Kelderman and Zakarin. They think they can't win, so they followed wheels for weeks to achieve 3rd and 4th. Great, but they will never know what would have happened if they had tried.
Seems like riding for good GC placing without any hope of a win is legitimate for many riders.
Possibly steepening the curve of WT point allocation and reducing the amount for lower GC placing (with relation to stage wins) might help - the only people who seem to really care about the non-podium places are the teams (and by extension the riders since WT points are vital for their employability).0 -
That's a bit harsh on Zakarin. He's been quite adept at stealing the odd 30 seconds here and there with late attacks. And it was his efforts that dropped Nibali on Angliru.TheBigBean wrote:The problem for me is not Froome - he is quite entertaining - it is more riders like Kelderman and Zakarin. They think they can't win, so they followed wheels for weeks to achieve 3rd and 4th. Great, but they will never know what would have happened if they had tried.Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95 wrote:
He sat in Schleck's wheel the whole way up the Tourmalet. Putting in an unsuccessful dig near the top isn't an attackTakeTheHighRoad wrote:He counter attacked on the Mortirolo but the Stage 16 one he attacked to p*ss Astana off, mainly for the sheer hell of it.
2009 Tour to Grand Bornand he attacked in Yellow as well. IIRC the Tourmalet in 2010 too
I like how you ignored the two solid examples and focus on the one I devoted a whole 5 words and an acronym to a hazy memory0 -
RichN95 wrote:
That's a bit harsh on Zakarin. He's been quite adept at stealing the odd 30 seconds here and there with late attacks. And it was his efforts that dropped Nibali on Angliru.TheBigBean wrote:The problem for me is not Froome - he is quite entertaining - it is more riders like Kelderman and Zakarin. They think they can't win, so they followed wheels for weeks to achieve 3rd and 4th. Great, but they will never know what would have happened if they had tried.
A lot of people don't seem to like stealing the odd 30 second though - they like balls-out attacks which fail most of the time (a la Contador).
Froome's also good at nicking seconds, so seems unfair to compare Zakarin to him unfavourably.0 -
I can't remember the details of Grand Bornard. Perhaps you're right. The other one was mostly his team driving a gap in the peloton to distance his rivals.TakeTheHighRoad wrote:RichN95 wrote:
He sat in Schleck's wheel the whole way up the Tourmalet. Putting in an unsuccessful dig near the top isn't an attackTakeTheHighRoad wrote:He counter attacked on the Mortirolo but the Stage 16 one he attacked to p*ss Astana off, mainly for the sheer hell of it.
2009 Tour to Grand Bornand he attacked in Yellow as well. IIRC the Tourmalet in 2010 too
I like how you ignored the two solid examples and focus on the one I devoted a whole 5 words and an acronym to a hazy memoryTwitter: @RichN950 -
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RichN95 wrote:
I can't remember the details of Grand Bornard. Perhaps you're right. The other one was mostly his team driving a gap in the peloton to distance his rivals.TakeTheHighRoad wrote:RichN95 wrote:
He sat in Schleck's wheel the whole way up the Tourmalet. Putting in an unsuccessful dig near the top isn't an attackTakeTheHighRoad wrote:He counter attacked on the Mortirolo but the Stage 16 one he attacked to p*ss Astana off, mainly for the sheer hell of it.
2009 Tour to Grand Bornand he attacked in Yellow as well. IIRC the Tourmalet in 2010 too
I like how you ignored the two solid examples and focus on the one I devoted a whole 5 words and an acronym to a hazy memory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k-8XNcJsDk
Looks like Andy Schleck got things going to me.0 -
Rasmussen was leader though. I'm not saying he never attacked (that would clearly be wrong) - just barely ever as leader.Rick Chasey wrote:Attacked Rasmussen hard a few times before Rasmussen put him to the sword in '07.Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95 wrote:
Rasmussen was leader though. I'm not saying he never attacked (that would clearly be wrong) - just barely ever as leader.Rick Chasey wrote:Attacked Rasmussen hard a few times before Rasmussen put him to the sword in '07.
Sure.
We can both agree it was the wrong move tactically however, but it did animate the race.0 -
bobmcstuff wrote:RichN95 wrote:
That's a bit harsh on Zakarin. He's been quite adept at stealing the odd 30 seconds here and there with late attacks. And it was his efforts that dropped Nibali on Angliru.TheBigBean wrote:The problem for me is not Froome - he is quite entertaining - it is more riders like Kelderman and Zakarin. They think they can't win, so they followed wheels for weeks to achieve 3rd and 4th. Great, but they will never know what would have happened if they had tried.
A lot of people don't seem to like stealing the odd 30 second though - they like balls-out attacks which fail most of the time (a la Contador).
Froome's also good at nicking seconds, so seems unfair to compare Zakarin to him unfavourably.
Froome doesn't just nick seconds. He's mastered the "I'm cracking, oh no I'm not, ride to perfection" This is quite entertaining.
Zakarin attacking, at the last possible moment, to steal a few seconds in his private battle with Kelderman did add some entertainment.0 -
TheBigBean wrote:
Froome doesn't just nick seconds. He's mastered the "I'm cracking, oh no I'm not, ride to perfection" This is quite entertaining.
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Fair.
Does make the neutral fan rather crestfallen the first few times.0
